I joined Mozilla almost 16 months ago after spending a decade at Microsoft. I wanted to move into the open source world and no organization represents open source as plainly as Mozilla, the non-profit foundation that brings us Firefox.

Mozilla is filled with wonderful people. I’ll miss many of them but one cool thing about working at Mozilla, and leaving, is that you don’t have to stop being “a Mozillian”.

I joined Mozilla to evangelise the open web. On my first day at Mozilla there were 165 full time employees. Today there are something like 750. Growth that rapid often results in turmoil and Mozilla is experiencing it’s fair share. More importantly to me is that the developer engagement team has shifted it’s focus to primarily drive developer adoption of FirefoxOS.

Don’t get me wrong, FirefoxOS is very cool and it truly amazes me what a relatively small number of engineers have been able to accomplish so far.

To begin with, I’ve discovered that I’m not really the right personality for a non-profit. Every conversation I had with my management left me reminded that I didn’t really fit in.

I wanted to fit in, but my real reason for leaving is that, while I’ve been able to do technically interesting work at Mozilla, the best part of being a technical advisor is being able to help businesses and professionals succeed.

Focusing on FirefoxOS may someday provide that opportunity to Mozilla’s developer evangelists, but not until after it releases, after cell carriers adopt it, after it is released all over the global market and then only if it can successfully compete against Apple, Android, Microsoft and other new players like Ubuntu to succeed where other players (like WebOS) have failed.

I think FirefoxOS has a chance and I wish them well, but at this stage of my career, and given my prior career experiences, I find greater satisfaction in working with larger and more commercial (existing) audiences.

I plan to stay involved with FirefoxOS and especially the Mozilla HTML5 apps initiative, but for full time employment, I’m off to find a better fit.

I made this decision not knowing exactly what I’ll do next.

I know I plan to work on a team, rather than in a group, and that I want role where I can help my company succeed while helping my customer do amazing things !

That’s nice to be honest in the reasons you list for leaving. Most people just write a lot of bs in the nicest way they think of 🙂

I’m curious if FirefoxOS will actually work out.

Mark Henley on
January 21st, 2013 3:50 am

Hi Joe!

Good luck in your next challenge and congratulations to whoever
is lucky enough to be working with you!

Mark P. Henley

Sarfraz on
January 21st, 2013 7:07 am

Hey Joe,
Sad for Mozilla for loosing a gem like you.
Good luck for your commercial hunt.

Sarfraz

Andrew Overholt on
January 21st, 2013 1:56 pm

Best of luck in the future, Joe! It was nice working with you.

Matt on
January 21st, 2013 8:29 pm

…successfully compete against Apple, Android, Microsoft…

It seems like you’re mostly thinking of markets in the developed world. FirefoxOS is not trying to compete with those players targetting high-end devices. The initial target is to compete with feature phones or as a person’s first mobile phone.

Best of luck in the future.

Chris Sergent on
January 22nd, 2013 3:18 pm

Looking forward to your next move. I know you will be a great professional to have on any team. Best of luck in your next challenge.

Chris Sergent

Chris Sergent on
January 22nd, 2013 3:19 pm

Looking forward to your next move. I know you will be a great professional to have on any team. Best of luck in your next challenge.

Don on
January 23rd, 2013 3:43 am

All the best Joe. You are an awesome trainer and can break the complex down into digestible pieces. Here’s hoping you land something that allows you to revisit that strength.

JoeStagner on
January 23rd, 2013 3:19 pm

Thanks Don.
I’ll post on Monday about where I’m going and I’ll get to generate lots of content in my new gig !

Sad to see you “leave”; helping business and commercial audiences is Good Thing™ … something many of us Mozillians sometimes forget. Reminds me of Matt Asay’s “Memo to kid coders: Enterprise software exists” 🙂

Joe, it was great working with you and it’s sad to see you leave, but considering what you say you feel, it’s probably the right decision. Let’s keep in touch!

–Tristan

JoeStagner on
January 28th, 2013 5:42 pm

Thanks Tristan – I enjoyed working with you too – I’m sure our paths will continue to cross !

Michael on
February 13th, 2013 7:05 pm

You will always be known as MSJoe to me! 🙂 You never know if you’ll like something unless you try it. I know the feeling that you are describing. A free-spirited company like Mozilla experiencing growing pains and now Opera has swapped to webkit as their browser engine really makes their fight harder.